Strange are the ways of Bharatiya Janata Party Andhra Pradesh unit president Somu Veerraju. One fails to understand whether he really has any interest in protecting the interests of the state.
At a time when the Narendra Modi government at the Centre has virtually cheated the state government by backtracking on providing 100 per cent funding of Polavaram project, Veerraju seeks to blame it on the state government – whether it was that of Chandrababu Naidu in the past or that of Jagan Mohan Reddy at present.
He says both the TDP government as well as the YSRC government have done blunders in executing the Polavaram project.
“Though it is a national project to be funded by the Centre, the Chandrababu Naidu government increased the project cost by thousands of crores. Instead of rectifying the same, the present Jagan government is making more mistakes,” he alleged.
He said at least now, the state government should follow the Central guidelines and complete the project.
What the BJP president failed to understand was that the state government, whether it was that of the TDP or of YSRC, cannot increase the project cost indiscriminately because the ultimate sanctioning authority would be the Centre, since it is a national project with 100 per cent central funding.
The state governments could only make the estimates of the project cost and submit to the Centre. Even the Jagan government, in its recent representation to the Centre, clearly mentioned how the project cost had gone up due to increased expenditure on land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement of project evacuees.
The bottom line is simple: if Somu Veerraju thinks the overall project cost of Polavaram is only Rs 20,398 crore as estimated by the Union ministry, can he take the responsibility of completing the project with this money?
As Jagan said since it is the national project, the Centre has to take the responsibility of completing the Polavaram. The Centre doesn’t have to give any single rupee to the state, but can give directly to the contractor to complete the same.
What do you say, Mr Veerraju?
